Our Curation Standards

Every painting is reviewed by our team before it appears on the site. This is what a piece has to be, and what it has to disclose, before we will list it.

Every Piece is an Original

We list original, one-of-a-kind paintings only. No prints, no reproductions, no giclée editions. When a work sells on Nefer, there is no second copy of it anywhere.

That covers oil, acrylic, watercolour, gouache, pastel, charcoal, ink, calligraphy and gilt work — on canvas, linen, board or paper — alongside signed drawings and mixed media pieces rooted in Middle Eastern traditions.

Reviewed Before It's Listed

Nothing appears on the site automatically. Our team reviews every submission — the images, the description and the condition report, checked against one another — before a piece becomes visible to you.

Meeting every criterion on this page does not guarantee a place. We curate for coherence as well as quality, and we turn down work that would sit awkwardly in the collection.

Every artist confirms the authenticity and lawful ownership of their work when they join the platform, and remains responsible for it after a sale.

Described in Full

Before a work is listed, we require the artist to provide:

Title and year of creation
Medium and support — oil on canvas, ink on paper, and so on
Unframed dimensions in centimetres, and orientation
Where the work is signed
A condition report covering surface condition and any restoration, repair or modification

Where a piece carries an exhibition history, a publication record or a statement from the artist about the work, we publish that too. If an artwork ever arrives materially different from how it was described, that is covered in Ordering, Delivery & Returns.

Photographed Honestly

Artworks must be photographed in natural daylight or neutral white light, against a plain background, with no flash. Colour filters and digital editing are not permitted. What you are looking at is the paint, not a retouch.

Submissions with blurry, poorly lit or digitally altered images are rejected. Where a work carries a defect, a restoration or a notable texture, we expect to see it photographed rather than framed out.

What We Turn Away

We do not list:

Prints, reproductions or giclée editions
Works with significant damage, mould, water staining or irreparable deterioration
Works that reproduce copyrighted imagery or infringe third-party rights
Anything generated by AI — every work on Nefer is made by hand